In Jesus Holy Name April 24, 2016
Text: II Timothy 3:16 Series: The Story Redeemer
“The Story of God, The Story of Us”
Life is a story. You wake up. What will happen next? Each day the sun comes up. Each day the sun sets. All sorts of characters move in and out of your day. Stories are how we figure things out.
Stories nourish us. We might know courage is a virtue but watching Maximus in Gladiator, gives us courage. If you want to know someone…. You need to know their story.
I love stories. I love stories. My grandmother’s stories.
She was born in 1888. The days of no telephone. No electricity. You made your own fun. She would come to our house for Sunday evening dinners. Maybe Saturday. I don’t remember …but I remember the stories.
Here is one of her stories. Once….. when her parents took the horse and buggy to town they left her and her sister, Lizzi home. They decided to play with the family ducks. Caught them. Put them in the horse tank to watch them swim. So the day went. Oh NO! they got wet. Can’t let mom and dad know we got the ducks wet. They took them in the house. The wood stove also heated the oven. So we put the ducks in the oven to dry their feathers. When they were dry we put them back in their pen.
How many of you believe the story? But it tells you something about her life.
I love stories: Our sermon series last year. The role of “kingship”. I Samuel 8:6-7 I really enjoyed the story of the “kings.” Why? Because I learned something about God and Jesus. As you remember in I Samuel 8 the children of Israel asked for a king. The truth? God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. But they wanted a King they could see.
First Saul, then David, then Solomon. And others. Many were terrible. The people suffered. Why did God allow evil kings? God’s story ….He enters human history to repair the human story….
Then Jesus comes…. John 6 (people were looking for a king and tried to make Jesus King by force. Then Pilot nails to the cross. Jesus, King of the Jews. This Jesus conquers death and rises from the grave. He will come again in the “clouds” with all the angels and believers who have died before and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. That’s God’s story.
I love stories. Don’t you love the story of the “shepherds” visiting the manger in Bethlehem?
Every year we get out our manger set. Set it up. Then after Christmas pack it away until next year. Why do we love the shepherds? They are reminders of God’s story.
Because of God’s love for his people he had Moses set up one of the 12 tribes to be shepherds of the children of Israel. It was the tribe of Levi. Their responsibility was to teach the Israelite families and children, God’s story. Of Creation. His rescue by Moses from slavery. The Passover and teach them the commandments.
Well, they failed… and just like the Pharisees added hundreds of rules, telling people that they could “earn” God’s love. Ezekiel 34. (read) That’s man’s story.
Jesus comes and in John 10 says: I am the Good Shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep. That’s God’s story.
This is God’s Story. God made the earth: sky, land, sea, stars, plants, animals, humans
It was good.
It was paradise.
It was the first grace: the Grace of Creation.
Man and woman together reflect God’s image as community. God loves us, but the very nature of love means that it is a “gift”. God will never force anyone to love Him….for therefore it would no longer be “love”. That’s why God gave Adam and Eve free will. Adam and Eve chose to listen to a creature rather than the Creator. His vision is ruined.
a. Evil entered the world for the first time. This is now our story. For we too have chosen our own way.
The result? The Punishment
Curse of working the land.
Curse of child bearing pains.
Curse of the snake is that of crawling on his belly.
Death of all life is part of the animal and human experience.
I believe in sin. I have seen it destroy people and ruin people. Even though I have seen it in my family’s life and even though I’ve seen how destructive it is, I still do it. Sin was not part of God’s good plan. It is something that humans brought into the world through their own free will. God intended the world to be ordered. Sin brought in chaos.
God is a God of order. Creation has an order. Look at your universe. Planets don’t crash into each other. You own body cells are structured for health. God even provided a “cross” in each of your cells called: “Laminin” Chaos, or sin, is not part of God’s design
When we, like Adam and Eve, decide that we want to determine for ourselves what’s right and wrong, God hates it. When we lie to our parents about anything, he hates it. When we treat others like we’re better than them, he hates it. When we involve our selves in any kind of drunkenness or immorality, jealousy, selfish ambition, and the like, God hates it. (Gal. 5:19-21)
And when it comes to punishment, let me remind us that God hates sin so much that he once destroyed the earth by water to get rid of it and in the future he’ll destroy the earth again by fire to get rid of it. God hates sin and can’t tolerate it.
But just like in the beginning, God always offers grace to those who seek it with a pure heart. So while we all sit condemned to die because of the sin in our lives that God hates, we also have been offered a way out. We have been given the greatest grace of all: the Grace of Life through Jesus’ sacrifice.
Every story is about relationships. The relationship between God and human beings has been broken. The original harmony is gone. The harmony between man and woman is gone. The Earth itself no longer relates well to humanity. Poor soil, leads to poor crops, starvation. The misuse of the earth’s resources leads to polluted pipes in Flint, Michigan. The list of destruction is endless. All through out history God is at work to restore our relationship. He wants us to experience peace, harmony and friendship again. He wants community. Even after God brings judgment upon a wicked earth, Noah and his family still emerge from the ark with their sin nature. It will take something more to solve the problem of sin.
The First chapter of The Story is vital to understanding God’s Story. God’s Plan. The doctrines of sin and redemption, the promise of salvation and forgiveness are found in the first two chapters of God’s Story.
The Bible…. This is where we find God’s Story
On your outline you’ll see a color chart of the Bible. (brown, green, blue,etc.)
When you and I read a novel, a mystery story there is a historic flow to the story we are reading. Day one… day 2 ….day 3 or next year…etc. The Bible is organized differently.
• You have the Books of the Law - brown – Genesis – Deuteronomy
• You have the books of history - green- history of Israel and their kings. I Samuel –II Chronicles
• You have the books of poetry. –red – Psalms, Proverbs.. etc.
• Prophets… who railed against the Kings of Israel for failing to shepherd God’s people
• New testament The Gospels - light brown…. One purpose to answer the question: Who Is Jesus?
• Acts in Red….. the history of the beginnings of the Christian Church
• Letters to various congregations… most written by the Apostle Paul
• Revelation Prophecy.. this is the topic for Sunday morning bible class… We will not be doing the small group study guide for “The Story” on Sunday morning at 9:15
As you know there are a multitude of changes going on in our church and I’m sure in your life as well.
This is “Our Story” in the midst of God’s Story.
You are experiencing the change.
So adjustments ….. 2 Sunday morning services , 8 & 10:30 with a new Sunday night worship and bible study beginning next Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. in the RECC. This service called “The Light House” will provide a contemporary Christian Music and a bible study on “The Story” by Deacon Scott.
Our Sunday School is growing and more time was needed. 9:15-10:15 They also will be following “The Story” along with music provided by Michal several times a month.
Our Adult Bible Class on Sunday morning will be studying the book of Revelation.
The Story: We begin next Sunday.
Step one. Purchase “The Story” read chapter 1
Step Two: The Sermon next week will follow the topic for the week: Creation
Step Three: during the week. You will attend a small group and use the participant guide to discuss the topic “Creation” and the sermon. Or you can use the “study guide on your own. These will be posted on our church web site.
The next week: May the 8th (yes is Mother’s Day.) but this year in stead of stopping the sermon series “The Story” for a sermon on Mother’s Day… we will continue with “The Story” …of Abraham.
Again. Step one…. Read the story of Abraham
Step two…. Sermon on Abraham on the 8th. Of May
Step three…. Your small group or private bible study on the topic.
This will be the process for 7 weeks. Then Summer will be upon us and we will break from “The Story”, give everyone a chance to “catch our breath” as we return to a summer preaching schedule through the Gospels, VBS and other events.
Then next fall, starting in September we will again “pick up The Story” .
The main character in “The Story” is God. He acts in human history over the centuries and He acts in our congregational history, and in your personal history. If you want to know a person you need to listen to their story. If you want to know God…. Listen to His story.
